Scott Peterson's lawyers: Authorities had nothing

Scott Peterson's lawyers:Authorities had nothing
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- Scott Peterson's defense attorneys continued to pick apart the murder case against him as an exhaustive search for hard evidence that has turned up nothing incriminating.
Attorney Mark Geragos launched a barrage of insinuations Thursday that authorities abandoned reason in their zeal to get Peterson.
At nearly every turn of his cross examination, Geragos forced Modesto police Detective Henry Hendee to acknowledge that searches of San Francisco Bay yielded nothing to link Peterson to the killing of his pregnant wife, Laci.
Geragos attacked the prosecution's theory that Peterson crafted homemade cement anchors to sink his wife's body in San Francisco Bay.
On Wednesday, prosecutors showed jurors pictures of a wooden flatbed trailer inside the warehouse where Peterson stored the boat authorities allege he used to ferry his wife's body onto the bay.
A white powdery substance covered the trailer in patchy spots. Hendee pointed out five circles in the dust, voids in the powder where Peterson is said to have placed molds to make the anchors. The circles were barely distinguishable.
Agency audit takes a lookat recalls of tainted meat
WASHINGTON -- Recalls of tainted meat may not get as much product off the market as the Agriculture Department has reported, an agency audit has found.
The Food Safety and Inspection Service's "conclusions regarding the effectiveness of food safety recalls may be based on inaccurate or incomplete information," the report said.
The USDA inspector general's office examined one of the largest recalls in history, 27.4 million pounds of processed deli poultry from a Wampler Foods plant in Franconia, Pa., in 2002.
The recall, ordered by Wampler Foods' owner, Pilgrim's Pride, was monitored by the department's FSIS.
The FSIS responded that it has improved its system for tracking the effectiveness of recalls. And meat industry officials said the industry does a good job of getting the product back.
A consumer advocate said problems in gathering data are built into the system.
Ex-chess champ Fischeris detained in Japan
TOKYO -- Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer, wanted since 1992 for playing a tournament in Yugoslavia despite U.N. sanctions, has been detained in Japan, clearing the way for his extradition to the United States.
Fischer was stopped at Tokyo's Narita International Airport on Tuesday as he tried to go to the Philippines, an airport official said on condition of anonymity.
Miyoko Watai, a Japan Chess Association official who described herself as a longtime friend of Fischer's, said the eccentric chess prodigy discovered when he was detained that the United States had revoked his passport.
Watai, who said she had spoken with Fischer since his detention, added that he was told he would be extradited but that he would appeal.
The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said it knew Fischer had been detained but refused further comment, citing privacy concerns.
Fischer became a Cold War hero in 1972 when he defeated Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union to become the first American world chess champion.
But the chess prodigy, long know for his eccentric ways, stunned the chess world by refusing to play again, and had slipped mysteriously in and out of public view in the years since.
He forfeited the title in 1975, and resurfaced for a dramatic rematch against Spassky in Yugoslavia in 1992, beating him 10-5 to win $3.35 million.
U.S. authorities accused him of violating U.N. sanctions imposed against Yugoslavia for provoking warfare in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Fischer, indicted by a grand jury in 1992, managed to elude authorities and left a tantalizing trail that included radio broadcasts from the Philippines and sightings in Japan.
Portable potty explodes
BLACKSVILLE, W.Va. -- A man smoking in a portable toilet lighted up more than a cigarette.
The potty exploded Tuesday when a buildup of methane gas mixed with the lighted cigarette, said a spokeswoman for Monongalia Emergency Medical Services. The methane didn't "take too kindly" to the lighted cigarette, she said.
Emergency workers said the man was not severely injured and drove himself to the hospital after the stinky, smoky mess.
Associated Press/Combined dispatches